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Opinion: Editorials

For shame: Blocking benefits from long-term unemployed shortsighted and cruel

By Erika Stutzman

Posted:
02/07/2014 01:00:00 AM MST

They say April is the cruelest month, but February isn't doing Americans any favors.

On Thursday, the Senate failed to move a measure forward to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed. The vote was 55-42. The tyranny of the minority strikes again. It needed more than 60 to block a Republican filibuster.

"Both sides of the aisle have worked together to prevent this kind of hardship in the past, and neglecting to do so now is unacceptable," Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.

The extensions had won bipartisan support since 2008, in recognition of the severe recession. So why continue? Well, statistically, short-term unemployment has returned to historical norms. Not so for the long-term unemployed, the hardest hit by the recession and slow recovery.

What was initially 1.3 million Americans has bloomed to 1.7 million this year. The farm bill that gained bipartisan support mostly benefits large agricultural firms, and cuts food stamps. The long-term unemployed and the hungry just don't have enough lobbyists in Washington in 2014.

"We've given them everything they wanted. Paid for," said Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader.

Around the country, people are struggling with record-breaking cold weather, school closures from snowy storms and sky-high heating bills. For those lucky enough to have a job, taking time off of work to care for home-bound little kids and writing checks to cover large bills may not make us feel particularly fortunate.

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But consider being one of the 1.7 million Americans without a job — but actively seeking work — for so long that your fate rests in the hands of an infinitesimally small number of cozy, warm, employed Republican senators.

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